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| - So the original gameplan was to go to Elena's for the AYCE in the morning/brunch hours...didn't happen. We were lounging by the pool too long. Needless to say, our family was famished by the time we arrived at Elena's which was around 6pm.
The restaurant was strangely empty. I mean, nobody was in there...but us...and the employee. We were concerned that maybe they were still closed but left the door unlocked??? Hmmm...turns out they WERE open. We asked about the AYCE deal and "auntie" pointed us to the buffet of Filipino goodness!
It reminded me of your typical Filipino house party -- utensils and plates, along with the steamed rice at the start of the buffet, followed by a long table of various Filipino foods. But in addition to the steamed rice, they also had their famouse pork adobo omelet. I was interested in seeing how delicious this was since during my recent trip to Vegas I was able to devour the Aloha Kitchen version. The verdict? It was pretty good - only since it's a buffet, you're cutting a portion from the omelet (which they btw refill). At Aloha Kitchen, you get an entire portion to yourself. I'm sure the same is true if you were to order this a la carte.
I LOVED their pork adobo, their dinuguan and their pansit (bihon mixed with canton noodles are my fave). The meat had that fatty goodness and it really reminded me of my Mom's cooking. They also had chicken adobo, pinakbet, sari sari, long noodles, pusit, fried chicken, menudo (which I enjoyed) and a couple of other dishes I might be missing.
What I wish was part of the buffet was kare-kare and lumpia. We did however try their lumpias (both shanghai and vegetable). It was just OK to me. There is something in their veggie lumpia that was stringy...not your typical sprouts.
We ordered halo-halo too...I thought this was a miss. But just my opinion. Overall, pretty good service, pricing ($8.99 for AYCE) and the food was authentic. I'd come back for sure and maybe this time I'd order off their menu since I already tried their AYCE. :)
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